Now here’s a horrid slice of ugly that is confused just from its title.  1968’s Dark of the Sun is the kind of title which immediately scans as a none too clever attempt to sound intelligent.  In only this regard, I was reminded of Eyes Wide Shut.  That one of the writers of the screenplay […]

An odd recurring conversation I have had with various people over the years is a debate whether, if it was possible, one would want to live forever.  I am always solidly against it, as there is already enough disconnect between generations  Basically, so much of one’s psyche is inevitably shaped by their formative years that […]

It now seems hard to believe I used to wear a tie to work every day, and I had two novelty holiday ones to break up the somber assortment of patterned black and blue.  One of those was a Christmas tie, with the Grinch on it.  The other had the Peanuts gang in costumes and […]

What is it about the title 1955’s Female on the Beach that it feels obvious it would be a Joan Crawford movie while simultaneously not sounding like one?  It is a title that immediately, and incorrectly, brings to my mind Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr passionately making out in the sand in From Here to […]

The very first couple of minutes of 1958 noir Never Love a Stranger are interesting.  John Drew Barrymore stumbles out into the street after apparently having just taken a bullet to the chest.  He gets in a car and tears off, swerving wildly until driving straight into a pillar.  I was impressed to see the […]

I have heard the term “nuclear football”, but 1959’s The Mouse That Roared is the first time I have a literal incarnation of one.  This “Q-bomb” has been invented by American professor David Kossoff and it is taken by Peter Sellers when he abducts the professor and daughter Jean Seberg. Sellers is Tully Bascome, and […]

An ancient, small bus of a firm ironically named the Rocket Transportation Company drops off Brenda Joyce in the town of Domingo.  As that means “Sunday” in Spanish, I wondered if that town was in Mexico, though it doesn’t appear to be.  At least, it isn’t identified as such. I don’t even know if she […]

Midnight Lace sure sounds like it would be one of those soft-core Skinemax movies from 80’s or 90’s.  The first sign is isn’t is that it was released in 1960.  Oh, and by a large American studio.  And, oh yes, it stars Doris Day.  So, rather the opposite of anything libidinous.  The picture is set […]

Wilfrid Hyde-White is one of those actors who is seemingly in at least a hundred films from the first half-century of sound cinema, and is best cast when he can be a bit of a scoundrel.  Such is the case with 1960’s Two-Way Stretch, in which he plays the criminal mastermind whose last exploit put […]

Given Cary Grant admitted to taking LSD on at least one occasion, 1938’s Topper Takes a Trip is not about the kind of trip I thought it would be.  Also, I keep forgetting he is not the titular character. Instead, that is Roland Young, once again playing a bumbling bank owner who is forever unlucky […]

When my wife and I learned The Beta Band were reuniting for a tour, the only question was where to go see them. It was shocking they were doing this two decades after they had ceased to be a going concern. It was even more astonishing they were hitting some cities in the U.S., a […]

In 1966, John Lennon ill-advisedly said in an interview that The Beatles were more popular than Jesus.  He also said, “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink.”  This did not go down well with the public, especially in the Bible belt of America.  For a while, mass burnings of the band’s records were a […]

The first date I went on with my eventual wife was an advance screening of 1991’s Mystery Date.  Although the date was very important to me, the screening was just another of a long line of them, courtesy of the passes I received as my job of being a critic for a community newspaper.  It […]

At a record show, I have achieved minor infamy by being the guy who, when asked what he’s looking for, usually responds with “garage and gospel”.  Those genres may seem to be polar opposites, but I like the latter best when it is as raw and gritty as the former.  Also, I try to not […]

There is an ongoing debate in film circles as to whether or not Casablanca is noir.  I know I’m on the fence and unwilling to commit to either side.  1978’s The Cheap Detective is firmly on the side that it is, as that is one of the two films it primarily parodies.  The other is […]